


Rosemary, for remembrance

by Triskaidekalogue



Series: HSO 2011 ficbits [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Ficbit, Guardians - Freeform, Pre-Scratch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-15
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 15:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triskaidekalogue/pseuds/Triskaidekalogue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the middle of July but she's got October on her mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosemary, for remembrance

**Author's Note:**

> A snippet written for [lj user sharkgills' soundtrack](http://hs-olympics.livejournal.com/9563.html?thread=1541723#t1541723) in HSO Bonus Round 2B

Four in the morning found Mary Lim wide awake and waiting for day's first light. She'd woken with a start, inexplicably, at about half past three; and, not wanting to disturb October, who'd come over for her thirteenth-birthday slumber party and was sharing her bed, she'd tried to fall asleep again. She couldn't. And she found that she would rather wait for sunrise than sleep -- the sun, at least, would be nice enough to actually show up at some point.

But it was so hard to just lie there not doing _anything._

"Toby," Mary whispered, raising herself on one elbow. "Toby, you awake?"

No response. To her surprise, the elegantly nightgowned girl beside her continued her deep, slumbering breaths. Usually it was October who slept lightly and Mary who wouldn't so much as stir if a tornado teamed up with an earthquake and went to town.

Mary let herself drop back down and, cheek pillowed against hand, regarded her friend's sleeping form. It struck her that this would be a splendid opportunity to pull off a jape or two -- swap out October's pretty lipstick for the bright purple novelty one that finally came in the mail last week, or fill that old chemistry book of hers with paper confetti. But some clouds must have shifted then or something, because all of a sudden a patch of moonlight lit the back of October's head silvery-gold and traced out a bright line all along the curve of her neck and Mary couldn't look away. She felt very warm. All around her was the sound of summer cicadas and October's steady breathing and she thought maybe this was the kind of thing people wrote fancy poems about but her mind was too full of wonder. She'd never gotten good grades in English anyway. All she wanted was to press the moment in a book like one of Mama's flowers and keep it to look at forever.

Sunrise found her fast asleep, dreaming dreams far mundaner than the loveliness that lulled her there.

  


(Years in the future, a certain motley spirit catches sight of a certain sophisticated scientist, and neither of them can explain the strange tightness in their throats -- one living, one dead.)

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't come up with the name "October Lalonde"; for me it comes from ladyofshallnot's [Second Base](http://archiveofourown.org/works/187818/chapters/303337), an excellent kids-especially-Dave fic that everyone ought to read if they haven't already.


End file.
